Margaret Crawford Urquhart

Margaret Crawford Urquhart, née Peters, 91, of Winchendon, Massachusetts and Bradenton, Florida, died Monday, February 16th at the Summerhill Assisted Living and Memory Care Community in Peterborough, NH. Margaret was born in Medford, Massachusetts on February 4, 1924, the daughter of Emily Whitney of Winchendon and Alexander Crawford Peters of Medford. She attended Concord Academy and Wellesley College, graduating with a BA in Music in 1945. Margaret briefly taught music at the Northfield School for Girls after graduation. She then met her husband of 69 years, Alexander Wolseley Urquhart Jr. in Concord Massachusetts. They were married on December 21, 1946. Alex Urquhart, an Annapolis graduate and a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, was attending MIT where he earned a graduate degree in electronics. Upon his graduation, the couple began their twenty year episode as an itinerant U.S.Navy family. The Urquhart family moved many times from coast to coast and back again to different locations while Alex pursued his career as an accomplished Naval aviator and carrier pilot. Alex retired from the Navy in 1965 at which time the family moved to Winchendon because of Margaret's family and historical ties to the town. During her years in Winchendon, Margaret worked tirelessly for the benefit of the town, with some time spent earning a Master's degree in Psychology from Fitchburg State College. Margaret's main focus, though, was to serve, as she did on the Winchendon Planning Commission, the Historical Commission, the Historical Society, the Toy Town Partnership and the Northern Heritage Mills Project. Margaret donated land on the banks of the Millers River to the Converse Gardens and to the Mt. Grace Land Trust. She was instrumental in the donation of the Whitney House to the Historical Society. She volunteered for the Head Start program, and the Marvin School Parents Committee. She served as secretary of the Standing Committee in the Church of the Unity, as vice-president and then president of the Winchendon Hospital Aid, and as director of the Center of Family Life. Margaret also served as a member of the board of directors for the Community Action Committee and the Youth Committee, as a member of the Winchendon School Advisory Committee, as a member of the board of directors for the Winchendon Arts Council, as a member of the League of Women's Voters of Winchendon, as a member of the board of the Tree Committee for the Winchendon Chamber of Commerce. Her hard work and commitment to the town did not go unnoticed. She was selected by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women as Winchendon's Unsung Heroine of 2007. Margaret was a devoted mother, but she was also an artist and a very accomplished pianist. She was also an athlete and played tennis as well as golf until late in life. Margaret is survived by her husband, Alexander, her brother Robert Edwards Peters of Concord, MA and her four children: Alexander Wolseley Urquhart, III and his wife Toby Lee Cahill of Templeton, MA, David Lindsay Urquhart and his wife Marie Catherine Urquhart of Winchendon, MA, Peter Whitney Urquhart and his wife Emily Alice Urquhart of Portsmouth, NH, and Ellen Purdy Urquhart and her husband Frederick Jeremiah Hogan of Boston, MA, her six grandchildren: Benjamin Nelson Urquhart, Andrew David Urquhart, Lindsay Alexander Urquhart, Sophia Francine Urquhart, Alexandra Whitney Hogan and Madeline Urquhart Hogan, as well as her two great-grandchildren: Gregory Thomas Urquhart and Laurel Catherine Urquhart, her four step-grandchildren: Spencer Jay Anthony-Cahill, Leslie Gail Anthony, Karen Jeannine Shull and Kristen Elizabeth Shull, and her many beloved nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Margaret Urquhart's memory to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 434 West 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001 www.plannedparenthood.org or to The Nature Conservancy, 4245 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203 www.nature.org. A memorial service will be held for Margaret the morning of Saturday, April 18, 2015 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Winchendon, 126 Central Street. A reception will be held following that service at the Winchendon Historical Society at 151 Front Street, the home for generations of Margaret's family. To sign the online guestbook for Margaret, please visit our website at www.fletcherfuneral.com. The Fletcher-Hebert Funeral Home, 70 Pleasant St., Winchendon is honored to be assisting the family with the arrangements.